On the Development of a Broad Anti-War and Anti-Imperialist Front

International Department
Central Committee
Communist Party of the Philippines
May 02, 2004

Warmest greetings of comradeship and revolutionary solidarity to all the participants in this year's Brussels Communist Seminar! We thank the Workers Party of Belgium for once again giving us this opportunity to contribute to this annual seminar..

Our paper is on the development of the broad anti-war and anti-imperialist front, a topic that has gained utmost importance and urgency at this time when the world capitalist system continues to sink in ever-deepening crisis. US imperialism -- the number one superterrorist power of the past century and currently -- is scrambling to consolidate its hegemony worldwide, and the peoples of the world are rising to condemn and fight imperialist war and aggression.

Growing Broad Anti-War and Anti-Imperialist Front

Tens of millions marched in protest in a single day, 15 February last year, against the impending immoral war of aggression which the Bush gang was poised to launch against Iraq, even as imperialist propaganda shamelessly churned out canards about weapons of mass destruction and an Iraqi people eagerly waiting to be liberated by the US imperialist-led coalition.

A broad range of forces all over the world is rising to oppose US imperialism and war. Such forces do so at varying degrees and consistency, for different reasons, with various means, independently or with some kind of coordination or cooperation. They provide the basis for an ever broadening united front against imperialism and war.

The US, Japan and the European imperialist powers collude with each other in exploiting and oppressing the world's peoples. But the crisis of the world capitalist system and the relentless drive of the US to consolidate its hegemony continue to exacerbate the contradictions among the imperialist powers. Bush's declaration that the US shall never again allow any power to even come close to being a peer rival or challenging US world supremacy clearly referred not only to Russia and China but also to Germany, Japan, France and the United Kingdom.

The US maintains control over the countries in the European Union through the NATO that it continues to lead and dominate. A united Europe would pose a challenge the US in the economic and political spheres. But the countries in the European Union still act largely according to national interests, thus allowing the US to combine with any of these countries in pursuing definite imperialist objectives. For example, Germany colluded with the US in fomenting ethnic conflict among the Balkan peoples and then used the United Nations and NATO to justify military aggression and occupation under the guise of peace-enforcement with the congruent objective of strengthening their control over Central Europe. But the US and the German imperialists have conflicting interests and rival plans in securing the territory for laying the oil pipelines from the Caucasus and Caspian Regions to Europe.

The European powers are increasingly resentful of the US' avarice in seizing strategic resources throughout the world with apparent impunity, coupled with its arrogance and bullying tactics even within the WTO. France, Germany, Russia and China opposed the US invasion of Iraq because this threatened their own investments, concessions and toehold in Iraq and elsewhere. They perceive that this would firm up US dominance and control over the whole region at their expense. However, at this stage, they still acquiesce to US military superiority and dare not risk confrontation over territory.

Both China and Russia are wary of US encroachments, including the maintainance of US bases, in Central Asia. They held joint military exercises last August with Kazakhastan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, their partners in the security alliance, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Between Russia and China, it is China that the US considers a bigger potential peer rival. The US pursues a dual policy of engagement and containment toward China-engaging it economically while containing it politically and militarily.

Many countries assert their national independence to ward off US economic, diplomatic, political and military demands and coercion. Such oil-rich but vulnerable countries such as Iran and Venezuela, as well as current and erstwhile US allies, are potential targets of US aggression and the policies of preemptive strike and regime change. The example of Iraq and Saddam Hussein is all too clear to be missed. The flagrant trampling of national sovereignty, massive destruction and incalculable human suffering the US invasion has wrought on the Iraqi people have deepened the resentment, enmity and contempt, rather than fear, in the hearts and minds of the peoples of these countries, and have inflamed resistance against the US aggressors and their allies, especially in predominantly Muslim countries.

Countries like Cuba and the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea have survived so many decades of US demonization, subversion, military aggression, economic sanctions and various other threats during the entire Cold War. While they do not have the same abundance of oil resources as the Middle East and Central Asian countries, they remain targets of US aggression due to their strategic geographic location and because they remain as symbols of national independence and socialist aspirations for oppressed nations and peoples.

The national liberation movements in several third world countries such as Palestine, the Philippines, Nepal, India, Turkey, Colombia and Iraq are most important to the anti-imperialist movement because they directly address the central question of political power and would deal lethal blows to imperialist forces and interests in these countries once they achieve nationwide victory. Their successes and victories also serve to inspire other oppressed third world peoples to advance their own struggles for freedom and democracy.

A New Vietnam for the US

The seemingly invincible and awesome war machine that the US had unleashed after the September 11 bombings and steamrollered over Afghanistan and Iraq has began to falter and is now bogged down in what is turning out to be the early 21st century version of Vietnam. The US' long-range hi-tech armaments and firepower are now useless against highly mobile and invisible Iraqi forces striking from close range at American troops who are compelled to defend and shuttle between fixed positions.

Barely a year after Bush declared that the war had been won conclusively, American soldiers are falling with increasing frequency as the Iraqi people step up their resistance to US occupation. As of 20 April 2004, 704 American soldiers have been killed and 3630 wounded in Iraq since the US began the invasion in 20 March 2003.

At home, Bush and his neo-conservative cohorts persist in carrying out the murderous "Project for a New American Century". They are besieged and beleaguered by probes that produce mounting evidence of official lying and scheming to deliberately mislead the public into supporting the criminal invasion of Iraq.

As in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, the American people's protest and condemnation of the US war of aggression is bound to mount as the moral justification for the US invasion and occupation and the image of US invincibility are shattered. Massive anti-war protest actions in the US and abroad, the advance of anti-imperialist wars of national liberation movements, and the floundering economy can create tremendous pressure on the US imperialist masters to withdraw from Iraq.

The Iraqi resistance to US occupation and the Palestinian struggle against Zionist occupation and aggression have become the rallying point for the worldwide anti-war and anti-imperialist movements. US imperialism and Israeli Zionism have become the twin targets of worldwide condemnation due to their gross inhumanity, arrogance and flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, especially in their utter disregard for the lives of defenseless civilians.

The Tasks of the Communists

It is possible and necessary for all anti-war and anti-imperialist forces in the world to build a broad anti-imperialist front by cooperating, coordinating or providing mutual support. An international united front is needed to confront the No. 1 imperialist and terrorist power and be on guard against other imperialist powers.

The revolutionary proletariat and communists, through their parties, trade unions and states committed to socialism, must be actively involved in such an international united front and must give full play to the broad mass movement.

A number of international mass formations have this aim of building a broad international anti-imperialist front. We can study the experience of these mass formations to learn what can be, has been and must be done in order to raise the level of the anti-war and anti-globalization movement towards expanding and strengthening the anti-imperialist movement and building the international anti-imperialist front.

The anti-imperialist mass formation with which we are most familiar is the International League of Peoples' Struggle that held its First International Assembly last May 2001 attended by representatives of more than 300 mass organizations from 38 countries in Europe, North and Central America, Asia and Africa. Its objective is to provide a rallying point for cooperation and coordination aimed at.consolidating anti-imperialist forces and creating an anti-imperialist pole that could take the initiative in various anti-war and anti-globalization issues and actions. Since its inception, it has resolutely, militantly and consistently carried the anti-imperialist line in various anti-imperialist actions such as mass rallies, various symposia, either by itself or in coordination with various anti-war and anti-imperialist formations in different countries in Europe, Asia and North America.

Last year, the ILPS was a major participant in the Thessaloniki Resistance 2003 in July and launched the Campaign Against US Military Overseas Bases in Chania, Greece in September. Further, it initiated and co-sponsored along with Indian anti-imperialist mass organizations the Mumbai Resistance 2004 (MR2004) which ran parallel with the World Social Forum (WSF) last January. It joined and coordinated with International ANSWER and the United for Justice and Peace in launching the March 20 Global Day of Action to protest and commemorate the first anniversary of the start of the US invasion of Iraq.

The Mumbai Resistance 2004 was a successful experience rich in both positive and negative lessons in building a broad anti-imperialist united front. It succeeded in its objective of expanding and consolidating anti-imperialist forces and exposing the counterrevolutionary character and objectives of the WSF leadership. A sizable number of WSF participants were drawn into the MR 2004, which provided a forum for articulating the militant anti-imperialist line and opened up opportunities for expanding contacts, further cooperation, networking and coordination and political discussions.

The ILPS successfully used the united front policy and dual tactics of having some of its member organizations attend and participate in the WSF workshops in order to reach out to the large number of participants who were genuinely opposed to imperialist globalization and at least potentially anti-imperialist. Most of these had been attracted to the WSF because it provided "open space" for the articulation of views critical of neo-liberal policies, prominent personalities as speakers and guests, and the opportunity to attend because of funding provided by the organizers and collaborating big NGOs.

Confronting and exposing various pseudo-left and bogus anti-imperialist projects and formations such as the WSF is an essential task in building the broad anti-imperialist front. These projects and formations aim to divert and coopt the growing militancy of the people against imperialist globalization and war towards reformism. The WSF, for example, was established by the imperialists in collaboration with social democrats and the French Trotskyites in ATTAC and Le Monde and shortly after the militant mass actions in Seattle and the announcement to form the ILPS in 1999.

These counterrevolutionary formations also actively collaborate with the imperialists in attacking and demonizing progressive, militant organizations and individuals. A case in point is the collaboration between international Trotskyite and social-democratic parties and organizations with counterrevolutionary groups and notorious enemy special agents in the Philippines in demonizing and attacking the CPP/NDF/NPA and militant and progressive organizations.

Struggle Against Erroneous Tendencies

The ILPS had to struggle with and reject the ultra-left position of some elements in MR2004 who wanted to call for a complete boycott of WSF and obscure the ILPS role as initiator of MR2004. This would have preempted any possibility of exposing the WSF and its counterrevolutionary objectives from within, reaching out to the good elements among the participants and winning them over to the MR2004 and to a genuine anti-imperialist stand.

The ILPS also had to contend with and reject the view that holding the MR2004 at the same time and proximate to the WSF was a waste of time, effort and resources which would have been better used participating in WSF workshops to maximize the articulation of the militant position in the WSF and expose the counter-revolutionary character of the WSF, especially its leadership, from within. To have done so would have been to forfeit the opportunity and default from the task of leading the several thousands from more than 300 Indian and foreign organizations who went to Mumbai to articulate a militant anti-imperialist position and to advance further the anti-imperialist cause.

The MR2004 was also an excellent occasion for issuing and amplifying the call to join the March 20 Global Day of Action to protest the US invasion and occupation of Iraq and support the Iraqi and Palestinian resistance. The protest actions were made in coordination with International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), two US-based coalitions that have organized several successful international and US-wide protest actions and campaigns against the US war in Iraq since December 2002. This entailed coordination on a different political plane since the calls and issues were by and large anti-war and anti-globalization, not necessarily anti-imperialist. However, the ILPS links with these formations and cooperates and coordinates with them in order to bring the anti-imperialist calls to the millions who participate and the even greater number who are reached or influenced by these actions.

The ILPS again had to contend with elements in MR 2004 that sought to downplay the importance or significance of linking up with and participating in the March 20 Global Day of Action. The argument was that this was an initiative of the reformists and pseudo-revolutionaries and that the slogans of progressive and militant organizations will only be drowned out by petty-bourgeois reformist and even reactionary slogans. They insisted instead that genuine progressive and militant organizations hold their own mass protest actions on a different day in order to keep our slogans unadulterated.

Building the International Anti-Imperialist Front

It is the task of communists to ensure that the international anti-imperialist front does not fall into "Left" or Right opportunist errors that will obstruct its expansion and advance, cause it to shrink and eventually disintegrate. They must lead the politically advanced and progressive forces, win over the middle forces and take advantage of splits among the reactionaries in order to isolate and defeat US imperialism, which is now the enemy, being the worst among the imperialists.

As in united front tactics on a national scale, the international anti-imperialist front should unite the broadest range of forces possible to isolate the principal enemy, US imperialism. It is good when a broad range of political forces and the organized and the spontaneous masses come together to rise up and rally against the imperialist war, even as they carry diverse issues, calls and slogans. Communists have the task of encouraging and supporting the growing mass movements worldwide against war and imperialism, while they consciously avoid prejudicing the broad united front and mass character of the movement.

Communists should first of all build the united front against imperialism and all reaction in their own countries. They should build the broadest united front on the basis of the revolutionary class line, under proletarian leadership through its vanguard party, creatively applying Marxism-Leninism in making a concrete analysis of concrete conditions in their country. The anti-imperialist united front in each country at once becomes an integral part, a basic building block, of the international united front.

Further, the components of the national anti-imperialist united front can engage in international solidarity work, either individually, in groups, or collectively, with their counterparts in other countries. The existence of multifarious mass organizations addressing various class, sectoral and issue-based concerns provides a wide latitude of flexibility and range of possibilities for doing international solidarity work. Communists must encourage and support the international solidarity work of progressive mass organizations, and the solidarity relations, formations and alliances with their counterparts abroad. These mass organizations and formations can be encouraged to support the setting up of their counterparts when these are not to be found and thus support the expansion of the united front in other countries.

In building and leading the international anti-imperialist front, communists have the essential task of raising the level of the broad mass movement from merely protesting war, "globalization" and a host of other issues, to exposing and opposing imperialism as the source of war and plunder. This task requires massive, widespread and sustained education and information dissemination through various means, including the internet and the world wide web and community radio.

Raising the level of the broad anti-war and anti-imperialist movement and building the broad international anti-imperialist united front can only be ensured with the formation and growth of more genuine Marxist-Leninist parties worldwide, and fostering practical cooperation and understanding among communist parties.

Communist parties must persevere in their efforts to clarify their Marxist-Leninist and anti-imperialist position and develop such position through revolutionary study and practice. They can enter into bilateral relations, which follow logically from the conduct of ideological and political discussions and practical cooperation, or multilateral relations such as in conferences and seminars for study and exchange of experience and views.

Communists can contribute best to building the international united front and advance the world proletarian revolution by advancing the revolutionary struggle in their respective countries against imperialism and all reaction. Thus any communist party can support the revolutionary struggle of the workers in other countries, in accordance with the principle of proletarian internationalism which guides us in working for the unity of the workers of all countries and for the fulfillment of the historic mission of the working class.

As the advanced detachment of the working class in their country, the communist party should lead the people in their revolutionary struggle to seize political power to achieve nationwide liberation, democracy and build socialism. The revolutionary struggle in every country is part of the world proletarian revolution for socialism and against imperialism and all reaction. The victory of the struggle in any country opens up greater possibilities for the victorious peoples to directly support those still fighting to overthrow imperialism and all reaction in their country, and inspires the oppressed peoples of other countries to persevere and advance in their struggle.#

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